Yeah, so…

School caught up and gave my a nice, swift kick in the rear. Sorry this was so delayed, I went through week of moving and then had to get adjusted here, and then classes started.

Excuse, excuse, excuse. A thousand apologies!!

Just have the chapter, it's a big one.

Total Drama Redux

Episode 3, II

He was an absolute ogre. A bit overused, but really Courtney thought the word ogre described him best. For example, right now he was climbing a tree and viciously yanking down branches that may or may not be dead. Courtney could just hear the poor trees crying in agony every time he laughingly destroyed a limb. Bridgette wasn't seeming to keen on it, either, especially on the occasion where Duncan ripped apart a limb only to have a squirrel go scurrying down his shirt. She had been upset that the squirrel had lost its home, but to be honest Courtney was glad the little rodent had totally freaked out the delinquent.

Of course, he was really the only one suitable for the job. Ezekiel had tried but had proven not strong enough for most cases and more dangerous in the cases where he could actually break the limb. Harold had tried as well, but his continued scrawniness only led to the limbs doing more breaking of him than anything else. And DJ had tried, but upon discovering the squirrel's home he had been more hesitant towards the gathering. And Geoff was needed to help move the limbs as they came down, so Duncan really was the only one who could handle it.

"Do you have to throw them this way?" Courtney finally asked as she was forced to sidestep another piece of dead wood. Duncan gave her a grin and she found herself almost eating bark.

It was, fortunately, the last piece that they needed to gather before heading back, and they were just in time, as the sun was beginning to set. The group tossed the remaining branches in a pile towards the end they were to start tomorrow and gathered around where Harold had begun to light a fire.

While the others got comfortable, Courtney situated herself facing the other team. She had seen a rather large ball of smoke rising and to be honest, she feared a bit for her own safety, but supposed it was safer to be watching the others than not. The thought drifted around a bit before she found herself deaf to the world and happy in dreamland.

Used to sleeping in a comfortable bed on most nights and at least a mediocre one on others, it did not take long for Courtney's body to wake her with the typical stiffness and pain that comes with sleeping on the cold, hard ground. She moaned as she rose, realizing as her muscles complained that sleep would not come very easily again that night. So with a final grunt she lifted herself and moved slowly to the pile of wood awaiting them in the morning. She moved only by the light of the moon, and so after many stumbles and various curses she managed to find the decrepit old fence. She let herself drop uncourteously onto the railing with an emphasized oomph and rested her chin in her hands.

It didn't take long for Courtney to get lost in her own thoughts, regarding specifically her new adventures here in this God-forsaken farm. It had really been four years, she reasoned, since the group of twenty two had separated for the final time aboard Owen's yacht, and four years since she had even seen most of the cast – and that included the dark haired delinquent that currently polluted her thoughts. He seemed to always be there, since she had first interacted with him on the bus. It hadn't been a very happy reunion, either, despite them having parted ways in… ahem, better than good terms. But that was exactly the problem – and Courtney emphasized this with by forming a fist and beating it against her other hand. The jerk hadn't even gotten in contact with her since then!

She had even taken the initiative, which took all her guts to do, and given him her phone number as they parted after the grand soiree.

But she understood better now. Just as she had returned home to a family full of disdain and, "You've had your fun, now it's time to grow up, Courtney," Duncan, too, understood that the summer camp had been nothing but a vacation from reality. In hindsight, the scenario was obvious: they had both been given a break on the island, but as she returned to her studies and her college applications, he returned to his life of crime and mindless flirting with every well-endowed thing with legs.

She couldn't blame him. Really she couldn't. They were just so different – him, a brainless bully and her, an aspiring politician. What would her opponents think of her with him by her side? He hadn't even bothered to clean up his appearance or his act in the four years she hadn't seen him—

A twig snapped behind her and she whirled around, suddenly lost from her flurry of thoughts.

Speak of the devil, her mind uttered and she grimaced as a dark shadow with green, almost glowing hair moved towards her. She froze up, afraid he was actually coming to join her, when she saw him kneel about ten feet away. He stayed hunched down for a moment then stood, and she could see that he was carrying with him some of the lumber that they had pulled down earlier that day. He walked with it, very slowly, to the other side of the broken rail and placed it out very carefully along the ground. Then he returned to the large pile and retrieved a few more pieces, taking them and laying them next to the others.

It continued for a good fifteen minutes, Duncan slowly moving the pieces of lumber and Courtney watching from the dark. Finally the older boy approached where Courtney was watching him and she was forced to acknowledge that they had in fact seen each other.

"If you're not going to help Princess, you're gonna have to move." When later thinking about what he had said, Courtney would sorely regret having not punched him in the face. But at the time, Duncan's voice had been so tired sounding that it was hardly his voice at all, and she had obliged so that he could continue… whatever it was he was doing.

"What are you doing?" she did ask, and he gave her a look of equal fatigue.

"I'm not sleeping, that's for sure," he replied, "So I figured – " and here he took a break from speaking to lift one of the logs and brace it tightly against the last standing post, "That I might as well get us a head start."

It certainly wasn't an answer she was expecting, so she found herself completely devoid of a response. So she watched him begin to tie up the beginnings of a rail for a few moments, then found herself somehow standing at the end, offering him the little aid she could.

She could never really recount how exactly she had ended up helping, or exactly how long it took them to get the first few started. But it had all been in silence, neither really speaking nor listening as they worked – rather diligently – to put their team ahead in the game.

There was a faint light coming over the horizon when Courtney felt she couldn't take the silence anymore. Suddenly she was talking, and she couldn't tell if she had meant to speak or if the words were just pouring out of her mouth of their own accord, but there was no going back after her voice had shattered the silence.

"I expected you to call."

Maybe, she thought, she could keep working and he would never even acknowledge that he heard her – and that was if he even heard her! But immediately he stopped working and set down everything. Wiping his hands on his dirty jeans, he stood quietly for a minute, letting out a deep sigh.

"You wouldn't even hear it," he replied bitterly, to which Courtney scoffed indignantly.

"I listened every day for that phone to ring!" she cried, no longer really caring that the others were mostly likely still asleep just a small distance away.

"For how long, Courtney?"

He was so infuriat – had she ever heard him use her name before? Suddenly she forgot what she was going to say and stared incredulously at him, thinking over whatever he had just asked.

"I… what?" she managed, though her brain was now running about half speed and she could just barely register that he wasn't even smirking at her sudden thought-halt.

"For how long did you wait for my call?" When she didn't answer – because honestly, she had no idea how long she waited before she gave up – he continued, "Was it a year? Two years? Six months? Do you have any how badly I did want to call?"

An accusation towards her judgment was all it took to get Courtney going again.

"Well why didn't—!"

"I was in juvy!" he finally shouted, raising his voice to her level, "I went back to juvy to finish my time there and when I was too old for that, I rotted in a fucking cell. For three. years."

She shouldn't have been surprised, really, because this was the exact image of Duncan that she had been keeping in her mind for however long she had been mad at him. But the image suddenly seemed extremely foreign, as if any memory she had created of the delinquent was suddenly untrue.

"I got out on good behavior," he continued when still she said nothing, "Can you believe it?" He turned away, scratching the back of his head awkwardly and kicking a rock against the post. "I just… I kept telling myself a little longer, a little longer, and you'll be all clean. She'll like that."

And by she, he meant you, her brain processed for her, but she didn't really believe it. She was still sifting through the hazy image of a bad boy delinquent who broke all the rules to really process what the man standing before her had just said.

But he was watching her expectantly, and she had nothing to say. Finally, she shook her head, stumbling over a few words.

"I'm sorry," she croaked, though they sounded forced even to her own ears, "I'm sorry, Duncan. I didn't know."

"You wouldn't know," he replied hastily, "Because when I called 'cause I was free, the number you gave me was no good."

"I had it changed," she replied quietly. "When I went to university. Starting anew, you know." She let out an awkward chuckle and he reciprocated it.

"Princess," he finally managed because they had both, in their exhaustion, been overcome with laughing fits, "Princess, unless you're studying car mechanics I don't think much has changed."

"I happen to be very good at car mechanics, you ignorant ogre!" she cried back, though they were both still laughing. And as they shared a final glance and no other words, Courtney felt her imaginary Duncan fade with a tiny fizzle and the older, better memories of the boy replace him.

So while they stumbled their way into their sleeping bags as the sun peeked over the horizon, Courtney knew she had a long way to go, but she was already ten steps forward in the process.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Ugh. Duncan is way OoC. Whatevs. I'll work on it, sorry guys.

This feels like the end. Huh. Good thing it isn't.